I've heard that a mixture of linseed oil and turps is good for protecting wooden furniture, wooden gates etc from the weather. Is that the case? If so, roughly what proportions of oil to turps, and would turps sub or white spirit be as good as proper turps?
Decades ago I used that on a cheap but nicely made Spanish guitar which had a terrible synthetic varnish. It's worked pretty well. I did use
*boiled* linseed oil, which "sets". Perhaps 2 turps to 1 oil?
Linseed oil tends to go sticky, particularly in thicker layers.
Turpentine is expensive if real, and it does lead to the linseed oil setting up harder. ("Expensive" goes all the way up to "GALMI and still save lots of money"!)
I'd either use white spirit or another solvent 2/3 to 1/3 boiled linseed oil varnish (linseed oil with ah added siccative/drier) as first, 1/3 solvent 2/3 varnish second, linseed oil straight up as a 3rd coat. Wipe off excess, rags with this may self-ignite.
Or get a good oil finish for exterior furniture, and just use that...
Thomas Prufer
Isn't that (but with white spirit) what gets sold as Teak Oil?
Quite often that's a mixture of Tung oil, Linseed oil plus solvent, driers and UV filters etc.
Supposed to be good for "difficult" oily woods like Teak and Iroko... IME it tends to penetrate well, but does not build up much obvious finish.
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